Finding paths in Waterdeep

The Busy Nights

The Wayfinders spent the next day doing recon (and reading an overly subterfuge-y letter from Rana Tealeaf!), having taken a job as sewer patrol. They subdued a group of half-orcs, all but one of whom they handed to the city guard. They convinced Orcly (who’s real name is Jeff) to show them where the slavers were taking the victims. After fighting past an otyugh, scaring off a wererat pack, and wiping out a Grinning Skull orc patrol, Orcly brought them to a spot the group identified as a teleport gate (sort of a poor-man’s Portal) which was locked by a command word Orcly didn’t know. A further check determined that the exit point was probably somewhere under Mount Waterdeep.

The part knocked Orcly out, and delivered him to the Watch, before getting paid, cleaning up, and meeting Rana at the Red Gauntlet Tavern. She grreted them with a simple “I need your help.”

After not getting stabbed, she explained that when Kaydan had been prophesied from birth to bring great prosperity to House Anteos. Because of this, his father secured an enchanted dagger, and gave it to Rana, telling her that she’ll use it to keep Kaydan safe. Unbeknownst to her, it was a elven Oath-breaker’s Blade, a powerful magic weapon that was used as a form of punishment during the Crown Wars. It places a lethal Geas upon the subject, and can only be removed by a High Priest of the Seldarine. Understanding this (but not sharing all of it with Rana) the Wayfinders listened cautiously as she told them how Kaydan was taken to the temple to be set aright by his uncle, Hlethgevi Anteos. Hlethgevi Anteos, patriarch of the House, Lord Anteos, and High Whipmaster of Loviatar. They agreed, expecting a double-cross, and rallied whatever allies they could on such short notice. The Wayfinders met Rana at the sewer-teleport gate, where she agreed to wait for Kaydan.

The gate was activated, sending the party to the first level of Undermountain, and area within the Temple’s control. After dispatching the Grinning Skull orcs guarding the hallway, they encountered another Anteos, this one an Antipaladin of Loviatar. After killing him, and taking the keys held by an orc jailer, the party began freeing prisoners. The soon found a badly tortured Kaydan who began babbling about “the man with broken arms” who was “wrapped with bloody bandages” and “convinced the guards to take him instead of me.” Unsure if he was lying, delusional, or the beneficiary of divine protection, Lyssiah healed the prisoners enough to get them walking, as Osprey and Jorin hustled the throng to the teleport gate.

Gen took the form of the fallen Antipaladin, and patrolled the surrounding corridors, where he found a few groups of Grinning Skull orcs on guard duty. He returned to the group without incident, but locked all the doors behind him as he went, trapping the orcs. Having left the door through which the antipaladin entered for last, they went through it, Gen (Fox Magic’d into said antipaladin) leading the way, they came to a chamber with a door to the main guest teleporter (and a large idol of Loviatar, its bowl filled with tears, and a drawer overflowing with offerings/ticket payments) as well as shelves filled with shoes. Nice shoes, in fact. The party left this room undisturbed (save for Gen locking the door) and went into the hallway from which the sounds of joyous organ music and agonized screams called. The hallway’s middle was filled with enchanted coals, the air above them rippling with heat, and was lined with smaller idols of the Maiden of Pain, leering hungrily at those who walked the coals. The party (wisely) left their boots on and hustled across the coals, taking refuge by a stairwell leading up to audience seating which overlooked a small theatre of suffering below. All manner of tortures could be inflicted, as-from the audience’s seats-an iron maiden sat to the left, and a rack to the right. In the middle massive statue of Loviatar glared down at the stage and audience alike, it’s bowl overflowing onto the polished wood stage it rested upon. Mere feet ahead of it sat a wide altar, where a writhing man was tormented by a short, heavyset, balding priest. This priest wore a large, barbed holy symbol of Loviatar, and black energy leapt from his fingers and palms, igniting the nerves of his victim. This priest, Hlethgevi Anteos, High Whipmaster of Loviatar, sweated and strained, as the vile magics caused him pain as great as it did the man who lay before him. Above the stage, more victims hung in gibbets, two to a cage, being tormented by junior priests, as a massive curtain fluttered quietly in the back.

The Wayfinders spent a moment taking in the spectacle, and decided on a plan. This plan involved loading every buffing spell they had onto Osprey and having her rush at the priest and take him out straight away, while the rest of the party would rush in to defend the other victims. At the last moment, Osprey drank a Potion of Enlarge Person and raced forward. She vaulted over the side and her knee collided with Anteos, breaking his shoulder. Before he (or even her compatriots) could act, Osprey drove her-now massive-fist into the Whipmaster’s sternum, shattering it with her first punch, as the second connected with his jaw, breaking his neck. Lyssiah and Jorin engaged the acolytes nearest the iron maiden, while Gen fired off a sleep spell at the ones by the rack. While his friends eliminated the remaining clergy, Gen sauntered into view of the panicked audience, and demanded they sit. Confused and frightened by the younger Anteos’ presence, they spent the next few seconds looking back and forth, trying to decide how best to escape. Not long after, the Waterdeep Guard (led by Lt. Ienda) rushed in behind Gen, who promptly dropped his disguise. Osprey tore down the curtain to reveal a final, terrified acolyte who was captured, and a giant skeleton playing the organ, which was destroyed. Osprey took the opportunity to jump-kick Loviatar’s idol into rubble, while the Guard secured the audience, and groups of clergy came in to tend to the victims. Another teleporter was found behind the curtain as well, and when activated, took the Wayfinders, Ienda, and a group of Lathanderite clergy (Paladins and Clerics) to House Anteos’ main building.

Arrests came swiftly, and before midnight, the Wayfinders found themselves as guests in Castle Waterdeep, althought they did not sleep soundly, as the week’s events replayed in their dreams, with stunning clarity…

3 Cults, 1 City

The (soon to be named) Wayfinders spent the 12th of Ches in and around Waterdeep, with varying degrees of success.

The map-seller was bullied into bringing back information about Zhoet and company to the Flaming Flagon. He’s expected to leave notes under a loose floorboard in a private room at the tavern.

The party decided to investigate the burned-down buildings on Slut Street, with Japheck taking Yuun, and Talyria into the main building, while the rest checked out the adjacent structure.

Dead Banites were found inside the main building, as well as a pair of ghosts echoing the last moments of their lives. The second building housed little of interest besides a trapped chest that was enchanted to disintegrate anyone who tampered with it. After thinking very seriously about this, the group left the buildings, and resolved to warn the City Watch about it. Before they could do so, Japheck and Yuun got into a screaming match and stormed off in opposite directions. Talyria announced that she was going to the Flaming Flagon to perform because she was bored.

With that, Jorin, Osprey, Gen, and Lyssiah headed back the the Temple of the Seldarine to relax. Finding both her High Priest and his Number 2 priest gone (with the High Priest attending a meeting at the Temple of Tyr,) Lyssiah settled into her role as temporary Oracle-In-Charge. She promptly had the #2’s bedroom into an animal hospital for the city’s strays. Jorin left to find the Hammermaster of Moradin’s Forge, who was himself at a meeting in the Temple of Tyr, and had left instructions for his priests to apply any anti-undead wards available to them.

The group decided to go to the Temple of Tyr themselves, and gained access to the meeting using Lyssiah’s credentials as Seldarine clergy to observe silently from the balcony (even though Gen got scolded for casting Detect Magic in the foyer.) Within the Halls of Justice, Dalorna Viskel was giving the assembled priests a dressing down for refusing to move against the threat of Orcus’ minions. While she (as Kelemvor’s clergy) found support from the temples of Lathander, the Seldarine and the Mordinsmen, the majority ruled to see to Waterdeep first, and not send elite forces abroad. When she called for anyone in the chamber to show a measure of support for the cause, the party collectively raised their hands, causing the assemblage to take note of them, for good or ill. They were introduced to everyone (the Open Lord among them) as the adventurers who thwarted the necromancer, and assisted in the destruction of the Demon-book. As the meeting adjourned, the Wayfinders were cordially invited to a private meeting room in the temple. They sat with the faiths who supported moving against Orcus’ mortal pawns, and the clergy of Tyr. Dalorna and Piergeiron the Paladinson came a few minutes later, still arguing.

The Wayfinders told the Open Lord all they knew of the goings-on in the City, and he left, especially disturbed by how the news of the abductions didn’t reach him. The others wished the party well before heading off, aside from Dalorna and her War Wizard commander, who attempted to gently recruit the party to come and aid their work in Cormyr. Dalorna wished them well after they declined, and hoped to see them all again soon.

The 13th saw our heroes awaken at an inn, from which they began searching out news of the disappearances. While out on recon, Osprey chose to defy gravity in order to capture a fellow who had been spying on them from above. He claimed to be a member of the Red Sashes, a vigilante group who claim to protect the poor inhabitants of Waterdeep. He told them that most of the abductions were believed to be happening near The Hanged Man, a tavern on Net Street, and that many more had been taken than the six The Wayfinders had been told of.

The group took a few hours to rest before a midnight jaunt into the Dock Ward, where they stopped a break-in near their target area. After some stealth and subterfuge, Gen knocked out Lerg, the Half-Orc thug who was noted as the carriage driver, and slipped a thought into his mind to use the information about his organization to intimidate him. Lerg spilled the proverbial beans, and told told Gen (disguised as the butcher who’s shop they were in) about Ryner and Biser, that the kidnappers were perhaps a half-dozen strong, and that there was a temple to Loviatar somewhere in the city. The group knocked him out, and with the assistance of three more city Watchmen (who loaded unconscious thugs into the cart) they arrested Lerg, three thugs and a Cyricist who thought she could just murder Osprey and Lyssiah while the pair camped on a rooftop.

Having gotten (most of) the address of the warehouse the victims were being brought to from Lerg, the party +3 decided to clean house. Gen (transformed into Lerg) led the carriage in, while Lyssiah and Jorin hid under the hay, and Osprey made ready to sneak in. The Watchmen waited around a corner for the sounds of battle. Osprey started things off by removing a thug’s manhood with her fist, before Lyssiah finished him off. The Watchmen rushed forward, Jorin went looking for stragglers, and Gen moved off to the side to Entangle the back of the warehouse. Osprey beat on another thug before Ryner charged Osprey, stabbing at her. Lyssiah killed that thug shortly before Biser dropped down from the rafters above, killing two Watchmen. Biser, Osprey, Jorin, and Jan (the last surviving Watchman) fought Biser, while Ryner and Lyssiah exchanged blows. Gen drank a potion of Enlarge Person and began swinging Lerg’s Greataxe around. The party continued to beat on their foes until Biser, his ribs shattered by Jorin’s warhammer, flattened Jan with a series of quick strikes. Gen lashed out in anger for the first time, killing both Biser and Ryner, before walking away to sit down while the Enlarge Person effect wore off.

Jan survived thanks to attention from Jorin and Lyssiah, after which he summoned more Watchmen to the warehouse. The party relieved the villains of their equipment, discovering flesh-carvings of Loviatar’s [un]holy symbol on the backs of both Ryner and Biser. A search turned up fourteen victims, drugged and awaiting shipment to the Temple of Loviatar. A sewer grate behind the warehouse had been tampered with to allow ingress and egress, something the group considered “likely” as a means of transport for the victims.

With that, the group headed to an inn to rest away the remainder of the night…

Return to Waterdeep

Our heroes set off to return to Waterdeep after a stop by the Aldwyn farm to collect their captive goblin and sleep for the night. The following day found our troupe meeting a pair of paladins on the road back to the city. Knight Commander Dalorna Viskel, and her initiate Darver Tomblin met the group and after an awkward round of admission-denial-admission the groups discussed the Tome of Orcus, and how the paladin order these two belonged to had found several far to the east of here (in and around Cormyr and the Dales.)

Upon returning to the city, the group +2 heard the bards and minstrels of the city singing the praises of the oh so brave Kaydan Anteos, slayer of the vile necromancer in the hills north of Waterdeep. Although the entire group was upset, Jorin hatched a plan, where they group would carefully spread rumors about how Kaydan even stopped a Luskan plot involving the goblins, and destroyed the Tome of Orcus. While spoke at length with Lt. Sulem about their adventures, while Gen snuck out for a bit. (OOC: None of you know this IC) Liking Jorin’s plan, he decided to give his shapeshifting powers a workout. The young kitsune moved from tavern to tavern, inn to inn, and street to street, spreading this gossip across the city, and changing his appearance at every step of the way. Within a mere two hours, the “rumors” were firmly entrenched, and being cried across all the Wards.

Meanwhile, the group decided to split up. Japheck went to look for the Cartographer of Doooom! while Jorin, Lyssiah, Osprey, and Yuun went to meet Captain Smythe of the Watch. The Captain provided them with a list of a half-dozen missing persons from the Dock and South Wards, all of whom (Smythe assumed) were very much not dead and/or kidnapped. Yuun checked out the two addresses in the Dock Ward, while Lyssiah and Osprey went to the South Ward. All of the missing people had gone out to one of the three taverns or festhalls located on or near Net Street in the Dock Ward. Even more strange is that all of these people had no reason to just vanish.

Meanwhile Jorin met back up with Gen and T, who brought the corpses back to the Chruch of Kelemvor, just outside the City of the Dead. The trio waited while the priests and paladins ritually cleansed the taint of necromancy from the bodies, and wrapped them in burial shrouds. The High Priest forced the necromancer to talk via Speak with the Dead, and the group managed to learn the following:

The Necromancer’s name is Henglorik

His superior’s name is Therizan

Henglorik did not know when Therizan was due to return

Therizan and Henglorik answer to Orcus and his Ashen Council

The Tomes of Orcus are actually demons, summoned and bound

After the last question was asked, the necromancer’s body began pouring black smoke from his nose and mouth, and fel to the ground in what appeared to be writhing agony. The clerics prepared a binding circle to cast the demon-book back into the Abyss. The paladins spent a moment fighting the now-active Tome, only for it to get free. Darver grabbed it, suffering a nasty burn the Lyssiah healed, and threw it into the ritual area. Between Dalorna and Lyssiah, the book was pinned down while the Circle’s magic did it’s work. The book managed to break the stitching on one page’s mouth and spent some time hurling vile curses at them before freeing its eyes. This those open, it calmed and promised that the world would be overrun by Orcus’ legions of walking dead.

After saying their farewells, at least for the day, to the paladins and clerics, the group sold off their excess treasure, and stopped at the Flaming Flagon for a well-deserved breather.

The group cleared the temple to dead Moander, and captured the goblin priest of Maglubiet. The priest-named Dort-told them how a human named Turthery was paying him in Luskan gold to poison the aquifer. Our heroes brought the goblin and their loots to the Aldwyn farm, where they met a fellow adventurer. Her name is Yuun and she told them how she slipped away from Kaydan Anteos and company when some of his companions murdered a farmer. Yuun feared that they might either come after her, or attack more farms on their way to the necromancer-filled caves.

Yuun signed on with the group, and they chose to ride through the night to the farm where the attack took place. Lyssiah and Jorin took charge of caring for the poisoned farmers, with our heroes working till dawn. The farmers told them that Kaydan’s group headed north, where the hills started and the farms stopped. Lyssiah, Jorin, and T conducted Lathander’s funeral rites for the slain farmer, her body consumed by the brilliant flames in mere moments, and smoke dissipating before it blotted out the sun. Perhaps the Morninglord appreciates our heroes? Regardless, the now-owner of the farm, Kel, told the group that the slain woman’s children (his niece and nephew) were studying in Waterdeep. The girl, Liz, at the Temple of the Dawn (a Lathanderite school) and Sam at Atwell’s Arcane Academy, a mage school, and that they didn’t know what happened yet.

On the road, the adventurers were ambushed by a skeletal champion and his zombie wolves, which they dispatched with some effort, before reaching the area marked on their map. A faint wisp of smoke alerted them to some, possibly nefarious, activities. Osprey and Japheck snuck to the crest of a hill overlooking the fire, to see a tiefling necroamncer, mounted upon a monsterous skeletal steed, surrounded by ready-to-raise skeletons and zombies. Before him stood a blood-stained altar, where a wicked ritual-blade and a strange book laid upon a tattered cloth. The necromancer spotted out heroes, and began to cast his vile magics, as Osprey and Japheck raced down the hill with a battlecry. Osprey knocked the book clear from the altar with a spin-kick, and Japheck slid across the altar, kicking the tiefling from his steed. Talyria began playing an enchanting song on her lute, inspiring her friends to greater deeds, while Gen and Yuun tried to disable the necromancer’s mind. The tiefling summoned a wolf to attack Japheck and stood up, eyeing the book from afar. Lyssiah crested the hill, raced over the altar, and slashed open the tiefling’s back with her sword, while Jorin moved in behind the wolf, and waited. Osprey broke the necromancer’s ribs with a firey punch, and Japheck rolled in behind him, impaling the evil wizard on his rapier, causing the summoned wolf to vanish. A single hammer-blow from Jorin felled the steed, and all was quiet.

The group inspected the book, and Yuun found it to be radiating powerful necromantic energy. The book itself was written in a language that caused her eyes to hurt, merely from viewing it. This text was written in an ink of blood, upon pages made from flayed faces, with their eyes, lips, and noses sewn shut. Eventually, the group decided to wrap the book and dagger in cloth, and bring them back to Waterdeep, where they could be destroyed more easily. The necromancer bore a tattoo upon his chest, of a scepter topped with a skull, the mark of Orcus, Demon Prince of Undeath. Gen spotted what appeared to be Kaydan and a halfling (assumed to be Rana Tealeaf) fleeing on spectral steeds. Japheck also inspected a cave behind the altar, and found Kaydan’s adventuring group slain (aside from Kaydan and Rana) as well as a Magic Mouth repeating the following message:

“Henglorik! You will continue my work! Use the Tome of Orcus to raise more undead for my projects! Continue until I return, failure will not be met lightly by our masters.”

Jorin took the opportunity to use an Oil of Sanctify Corpse on the necromancer, then put him back in a bag and continued on to the Rutledge farm, where the occupants continued to recover from their poisoning.

Note: We’ll actually pick up from here, either on Roll20 or via email, since I skipped a scene by accident.

After accepting an offer from the City Guard of Waterdeep, to check on some troubled farms, the group gathered their supplies and headed out. The first farm they stopped at was a day’s walk from the North Gate, and the Holsten’s fed them dinner and breakfast, and gave them someplace warm to stay for the night. Grandpa Holsten spent a good part of the night telling them about the troubles of late. Among them, entire families falling ill and dying, or just disappearing. Things were so bad that the farmers had taken to melting snow for drinking water. A farm was specifically mentioned to have been burned down about an 5 to 6 miles to the east, and our heroes picked that as their next destination.

The party left early, and made their way to the Aldwyn family’s farm, where they had another snack, and heard the same sort of tales again. By 9am they arrived at the burnt-out farm. It’s roof gone, windows blackened, and snow drifting within, they resigned themselves to finding a grave. Jorin led the way forward, only ti find a goblin totem made from a severed human arm on a stick in a doorway. A second totem was found in the other doorway, and with no hope of finding survivors here, the group turned north-west towards some more farms they had been tasked with investigating.

The group approached the Merkel farm carefully, hearing snow being plowed through on the other side of the building. Japheck, Osprey, and Talyria snuck around the side, while Gen, Jorin, and Lyssiah lingered back to avoid blowing their cover. A pair of goblins were seen carrying a wounded man away from the farmhouse, prompting the trio to act. Osprey leapt out shouting threats, and terrified them into dropping the man. Japheck shot down one of them with his crossbow, and the fight was on. Those poor walls.

While the main part of the group killed the six goblins above, Gen made his way inside and found a trap door leading to the larder, where a brownie named Jom was hiding with the children he’d saved. He explained that the father of the children was the wounded man they’d saved, and that his four brothers were the ones who most likely died in the bedrooms, although the mother of the children was likely carried off. After a quick search of the attic, Lyssiah and Jorin caught a glimpse of goblins moving off in the distance. Gen and Talyria remained behind with the wounded (but stabilized) father, while the rest ran out to rescue the mother. After killing the goblins and returning with her, the party moved the four surviving family members to a nearby farm. The farmers, hearing the group discussed options for finding the goblins, mentioned a small forest a half-day’s walk north from them. The local legends tell of a lost temple to a forgotten god, which none of them have ever seen.